Garment bag



July 20, 1954 G. KRONER 2,684,150

GARMENT BAG Filed Sept. 5, 1951 INVENTOR 4/ Geoz ge ffi onen ATTORNEYSPatented July 20, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GARMENT BAG GeorgeKroner, Harrison, N. Y.

Application September 5, 1951, Serial No. 245,125

1 Claim. 1

in the bag, since the other hand holds the garment to be inserted.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide agarment bag of the above type which may readily be made of easilyavailable materials of low cost such as plastic film, fabric tape, wireand slide fasteners and yet affords a structure of adequate strength tomeet the requirements of use and'which affords ready access for removalor introduction of garments without need for manually holding apart theedgesof the long opening or slit therein.

According to the invention, a pair of spring arms are affixed to thesides of the frame at the top of the bag and protrude laterally outwardwith their ends at the upper front corners of the frame, automaticallyto urge the bag to open position when released by opening the usualslide fastener which, in closed position of the bag, maintains saidspring arms in stressed position along the frame.

In the accompanying drawing in which is shown one of various possibleembodiments of the several features of the invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the garment bag in closed position,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 1 of the bag in openposition,

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view, taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, taken along line t t of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective View of the garment bag frame.

Referring now to the drawings, the garment bag includes a floor It, afront wall I l, a rear wall l2, side walls It, and a top wall it, eachof said walls being rectangular in shape and having their contiguousedges secured in any suitable manner to define a box-shaped bag. The bagmay be of any flexible fabric but for economy is of translucent ortransparent plastic such as of one of the vinyl plastics.

The floor is preferably somewhat reinforced by a rectangular inset itwhich may be of fiber board or the like to maintain said floordistended.

To afford access to the interior of the bag, it

is longitudinally slit at 16, desirably from near the bottom edge l! offront wall II to the top edge !8 thereof, substantially midway betweenthe lateral edges of wall 1 I, and also rearwardly across top wall Mtoward the rear edge It thereoflalso substantially midway between thelateral edges thereof.

Suitable closure means are provided releasably to connect the adjacentedges 2| of the slit H5 in the front and top walls I I and. I4. Suchmeans desirably comprise a line of slide fastener tape 22 affixed toeach of said edges 2i and mounting a fastener slide 23 which may bemovedalong the tapes to connect or disconnect the latter in conventionalmanner. Desirably the fastener slide 23 is so positioned that it must bemoved from end 2% of the aperture IS on the top wall 14 to the other end25 thereof near the bottom edge ll of wall II to open the aperture.

The top wall it of the bag is maintained distended by a rectangularframe 21, desirably fashioned from a single length of metal wire, weldedtogether at its abutting-ends 28. Across the side bars 29 of wire frame2?, there is hooked at 3! in corresponding indentations 32, a metalcross brace desirably in the middle of the lengths of bars 29. The crossbrace 33 extends substantially parallel to the front bar 35 of theframe, is corrugated to space the hooks (not shown) of the garmenthangers to be carried thereby, and mounts one or more, usually two hooks36 that serve for suspension of the bag from the ordinary horizontalpole in a clothes closet. Desirably the median transverse portion of thetop wall [4 has eyelets 31 therein through which the respective hooks 3!extend.

According to the invention, means are desirably provided resiliently toexert outward pressure against the side walls l3 of the bag adjacent thetop wall 14 thereof so that when the slide fastener 23 is moved from thetop of the bag toward the bottom thereof to open the slit therein, theadjacent edge 2! of such aperture will be spread apart to facilitate theintroduction and removal of clothing.

To this end, as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, a pair of spring members M isprovided, each comprising a length of wire affixed at one end as bywelding at 42 to each of the side bars 29 of the frame near the crossbrace 33. Such length of spring wire is desirably bent into a. loop asat 43, positioned within the outline of and in a plane substantiallyparallel to the frame. The length of wire when unrestrained, extendsoutwardly from said loop across the associated side bar 29, toward thefront bar 35, desirably forming an acute angle with respect to theassociated side bar 29, when the bag is in open position, as shown inFigs. 2 and 4.

The free ends 44 of each of the outwardly extending portions of thespring members 41 which also lie in a plane substantially parallel tothat of the frame, are desirably bent into a loop, and such loop endsare positioned respectively in suitable pockets 45 formed at each of thetwo corners of top wall M of the bag adjacent the side walls i3 thereof.

Although the pockets 45 may be formed in any suitable manner, in theembodiment herein, each desirably comprises a strip of material affixedon three sides to the topwall [4 and defining an opening 46 into whicheach loop end 44 may be inserted.

With the construction above described, as the slit It in the bag isclosed by the slide fastener 23 and the edges 2] of said aperture aredrawn together to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the loop ends 44of spring members II will be moved inwardly until they extendsubstantially parallel to side bars 29, and will be so retained undertension to exert outward pressure against the side Walls l3.

As the slide fastener 23 is moved from the top end 24 of closed slit IEto open the bag, the loop ends 44 of the spring members 4| will bereleased and by their spring action will move outwardly of the frame tospread apart the adjacent edges Zl of slit l6, thereby providing readyaccess into the interior of the bag.

It is therefore a relatively simple matter to suspend garments in thebag even when it is partially filled as the user who with one hand maybe holding a garment on a hanger, may reach with his free hand into thebag through the wide open slit 16 therein and with his free hand spreadapart the garments hanging on cross brace 33 to provide space, and thussuspend upon said cross brace the garment he is holding.

Thus, the rather awkward procedure is avoided of attempting to spreadapart with one hand the adjacent edges of the slit in the conventionalbag while simultaneously trying to suspend a garment held in the otherhand on the cross bar in the bag, especially when other garments are Isuspended on such cross brace which must be spread apart to provideroom.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely differ ent embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope of the claim, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanyingdrawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A box-shaped garment bag having a floor, a top Wall, front side and rearwalls, a rectangular wire reinforcing frame about the periphery of saidtop wall, a transverse brace across said frame, at least one hookanchored to said frame and rising from said bag, a slide fastenerextending from near said brace along a slit in said top wall to thefront edge thereof and downward along a slit in said front wall, a pairof pockets on said top wall positioned respectively at each cornerthereof adjacent said front wall, said pockets each having a mouth atthe rear thereof, and a pair of resilient spring arms each com prising alength of wire, affixed at one end to the sides of said framerespectively adjacent the side walls of said bag, and normally extendingoutwardly from the sides of the frame toward the front edge of said bagwith the free end of each of said lengths positioned respectively insaid pockets, each of said lengths of wire having a loop thereinpositioned respectively inwardly of the sides of said frame and lying ina plane substantially parallel to that of said frame, whereby saidlengths of wire are stressed when the is closed, so that the free endsthereof exert out- Ward pressure against the side walls of said bagadjacent the top thereof to spread apart said slit as said slidefastener is moved to open position in order to provide ready access intothe interior of said bag.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,570,263 Kurowski Jan. 19, 1926 2,128,099 Marks Aug. 23, 19382,236,115 Schwartzman Mar. 25, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date349,203 Great Britain May 28, 1931

